Ridiculous times call for ridiculous statements from the Obama campaign. Campaign spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Air Force One this afternoon there was "grassroots outcry" about Big Bird and therefore the campaign decided to make the now infamous Big Bird ad.

"There's been a strong grassroots outcry over the attacks on Big Bird. This is something that mothers across the country are alarmed about, and you know, we're tapping into that," Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.

"The larger point... is, aside from our love for Big Bird and Elmo, as is evidenced by the last few days, the point that we’re making here is that when Mitt Romney… was given the opportunity to lay out how he would address the deficit, when he said 'I will take a serious approach to it,' his first offering was to cut funding for Big Bird," Psaki said. "And that is absurd and hard to take seriously his specific plan."

Yes, you read that correctly. The Obama campaign is actually trying to paint Mitt Romney as unserious while they make an argument and have an ad based on Big Bird.